The Risen

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

From The Archives: There is a Heppy Lend

First posted 1/7/06

"There is a heppy lend — fur, fur awa-a-ay."— Krazy Kat*

E.W. wrote:

"The diakka . . .. (is) an exuberant post, but I must say I have some trouble assimilating the subject, partly because I can't wrap my mind around why someone would even go to the trouble to perpetrate such a "hoax"; or rather I can understand why someone would do it (basically for the reasons you give), but the whole subject kind of twists me up inside and makes me feel about 200 lbs heavier and 80 shades of grey dumber. But I'm glad you're willing to take on the topic! It does sound like a fascinating place to visit; maybe I've even been there. Do you equate it with Summerland?"

The reply to E.W.:

"It's definitely a Summerland, one of countless. Freud (the author) wouldn't call it a hoax, that's too common. He really believes in its goodness, as a theory and experiment. A main point is "belief" and the power of it. He also just lets people assume Jesus wrote it, really makes him giggle. Obviously insane on a certain level. ACIM is brilliant, also obviously his tour de force. What's ironic is he's actually being manipulated on a much more complex level by much more brilliant comics.(Have you ever tried to read the damn thing? An excellent answer to insomnia, I keep it right in the drawer next to my bed for this purpose.)

E.W. then asks:

"So how far does this hierarchy of comics reach?I have always (just) leaned toward the laughing-face view of things . . . (E.W. later defines "laughing-face view as 'You know, the two theater masks, one with a long frown, the other with a big ole grin.'" )

The reply to E.W.:

"I have to take my cue from some of the (Risen) theoretical material on reincarnation on 'where it all ends' (anything = it): infinooty."
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This calls for a pot of lapsong. I'll be mother.

Thanks, E.W., for the pleasant exchange. First, Tim and I feel that because we have said from the start that most probably Freud is the Diakka architect of ACIM, but as he has not admitted it, we'll just use the i.d. "Agent F" for now, as a kind of "probability label."

Second, and before anything gets out of hand (should anyone else besides E.W. read this sorry boring blog,) it must be stated quite plainly that ACIM is not a hoax per se; not so much banana oil as, or more succinctly, re-presented truth. Everything in the ACIM is quite true if perceived and understood correctly, however it directs perception in such a way that it does exactly what it claims to undo (remember the mirrors?).

With the caveat that I'm not a scholar of ACIM (and although ACIM seems to downplay any kind of community development, it has generated a large community of mega-scholarship /pseudo-scholarship /fake-scholarship -- something ACIM's designers actually intended):

Regard ACIM's very last Lesson Summation from the Workbook for Students:

LESSONS 361 - 365

"This holy instant would I give to You.Be You in charge. For I would follow You,Certain that Your direction gives me peace."

The Risen suggest the following three-fold re-presentation of their own process (thus inverting it once again, or setting it back upright, Risen-style.) Note the Risen game-like response of word substitution and removal, like some kind of cipher or puzzle. It's not so much as three-fold, but three-unfold. Or unravelling.

When the ego self—the simulate self, as the Risen call it—is in charge, the experience is from a deep sleep of non-consciousness—or "underconsciousness" in Risen terms—where awareness is of and through only memories, which are essentially a dream state. The memories easily meld and intermesh, and expand to seemingly include and be all of one's known experience of time—past, present and future. Although one might be born awake, this is very rare and still one will—usually—and quickly fall asleep into the dream state; one usually falls asleep in the womb, "waking" into ancestral dream memories already surrounding the embryo.

When the Self is in charge, awareness is through the Self, which is unconditionally present to Itself, and the experience could then said to be "awakened." The body—that is, the experience of embodiment—does not—usually—end, and so there remains the matter of "cellular ancestral memories"—more widely known as "the collective unconscious"—which keeps the illusory bodily perceptions intact. This is not a spiritual emergency. As the Self awakens, the body remains but perception changes, so therefore the world changes. One continues on in in a particular intimate way with the material body until it terminates as directed by the collective unconscious plan. Transition to a new body of spirit then ensues, perhaps as Risen, or in another astral-etheric realm.

Realize that there is no "you" or "me"—only I AM. It seems pretty clear that ACIM does not utilize or introduce the notion of I AM (unless I fell asleep during that part.) The main motivation of ACIMappears to be to help us awaken to this realization by becoming aware that:

Whenever you are for giving, (forgiving) you are giving you to your Self (the non-ego, or "Self").

Whenever you are for getting, you're forgetting to give to your Self.

In order to give to your Self, you must be completely open and accepting.

Being open and accepting is the Original State.

The Original State cannot be undone, so it hasn't been undone. The bottom line is, there is no "death."

If you're in a posture of for getting, you can't be accepting. If you pretend you can be both, the illusion has to be manifested that the duality exists.

This duality is the "film of consciousness" that has been referred to in some of the offshoot writings of ACIM. It's opaque enough to appear solid and is the veil between states of awareness, including awareness of those who are Risen.

"Realize" doesn't mean "to make real," because reality can't be made, it already is. If we are "making real", we are manifesting aspects of reality. "Realize" means to real-ize, that is, to comprehend completely or correctly, to bring into focus in such a way that the awareness of complete comprehension is Now. This is Reality.

Can the above points, which seem very simple, be real-ized by devoting one's self/Self to ACIM? Mmmmaybe. But then why does ACIM have to be so complicated? Because it's a game.

Are we having fun yet?

It's knowing how to read between the word symbols, which this team of Diakka egos has brilliantly interwoven in a loop-de-loop kind of manner, resulting in a presentation of several similar or even opposing thinking directions that appear to be whole—that is, as nondualism, which is what ACIM insists it's teaching. Think of a sweater knitted or raveled in complex patterns, woven from one continuous string, but looped and knotted in many directions, resulting in one final objet that appears whole and congruous (because it is) and—hopefully—beautiful. This is ACIM.

This string we speak of here as a singular thing is not really singular, but a composition of multiplicities that can be reduced to something that is neither one or many. If it's a strand of yarn, that yarn is woven of several twisted strings, each of which may be formed by finer strings, which can be unraveled. Even when there is finally only one perceived remaining thread, that thread can be undone into its finer fibers; each fiber can be undone into its own finer components, until the molecular level is reached. The molecules can be separated on down to the atomic elements, which can be separated further on down into their vibrations of light and sound. Where is the sweater? Where was it?

". . . keeping the Risen concept of weaving in mind, perhaps at this point it can be sensed that what we have before us, from which we are inseparable and as reflected in this book, is a Supreme Tapestry. There appears to be a Very Grand Design which we all follow, either in awareness
or not, co-creatively, or not — recalling that “creative” means fun. As we weave we are free to make it up as we go along in any way we please, simultaneously staying within the Grand Design as imagined by Higher Imaginals, of whom we an inseparable part. The Grand Design is a work of perfections intermingled with imperfections, solutions with mistakes, and stillness within movement. The Higher Imaginals are many things, but for our purposes here, it suffices to say that they are very advanced and evolved individuals, or Higher Selves."(from The Risen: Dialogues of Love, Grief & Survival Beyond Death; Chapter 13, Mundus Imaginalis, p. 165)

The best way to really see the incredible complexity of this miracle macrame is from an expanded, enlarged perspective from the sense of I AM.

Be aware that this is a game designed on a very high order. Although it's totally harmless, it takes a lot of everyone's time. The Diakka, like the Risen, have a different experience of time than do those Earthers struggling to comprehend ACIM. But because the Diakka believe they are not immortal, psychologically they want more time, which they believe to be valuable, as do most Earthers, in order to keep on keeping on. Where better to get the illusion of time, then, than from a bunch of shills new in town and looking for a "good" time (good as in not evil) for some diversion? ACIM provides puh-lenty of diversion through a psychological sleight-of-hand, a challenging mental cat's cradle of "now take this string (of thought) from me and loop it over your mind's fingers like this."

Now are we having fun?

This more or less answer's E.W.'s consciously aware question, "Why?"

And to the unasked question, "Why is AICM so serious?" Because not everyone has the same sense of fun. Thank God.

And yet, there are lovely things and places to be found therein:

"In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive the cause, and looks not to effects." (Text, Chapter 27, "Healing of the Dream")

Words to the wizened: **

"Although psychoanalysis has a variety of views on when ego psychology began, most who identify with the ego psychological school place its beginnings in Sigmund Freud's 1923 book The Ego and the Id, in which Freud introduced what would later come to be called the structural theory of psychoanalysis. The structural theory divides the mind into three agencies or structures: the id, the ego, and the superego." (from the current entry-in-progress at Wikipedia, 1/06.)

Note "divides." ACIM utilizes not only the analytical style of Freudian theory, it utilizes Freud's style of practice. It is patronizing, charming, seductive, disarming. It smiles knowingly, but never laughs out loud. It is addicting. Put the book down and step away from the podium.

Agent F has over-written and drawn out the story with all the nagging drip-drip-drip-drip of Chinese Water Torture. Agent F makes the simple complex while claiming the opposite. Agent F has an exquisite masterly grasp of Freudian theory and practice. Agent F assumes a place of power from behind the couch, where the analysand lies -- unable to see the analyst while having to learn to listen for "a voice," to learn how to project that which the analyst suggests is on the blank screen before the patient; the blank screen is also a suggestion of the analyst. This also sounds like hypnosis techniques (which The Risen explores in depth regarding reincarnation.)

Agent F is extremely fond of iambic pentameter, which is soothing and hypnotic — the "sleep that knits up the ravel'd sleave of care." (And it works splendidly for my insomnia, as I remarked to E.W. earlier.) Helen Schuchman was very fond of Shakespeare. And Shakespeare has his own game going.*** Another funny, odd co-inkydink which Agent F has knitted into his garment of gamedom.

We'd like to suggest that Jeshua said what he needed to say already. As noted somewhere in The Risen—don't ask me exactly where off the top of my head, I just discerned the damned thing—The Creator Source got It right the first time; It doesn't have to do anything ever again. In fact, the designers of ACIM must have got a kick out of directly cluing in the reader about this from the very beginning — and note the word "simply":

"This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God." (Introduction, ACIM)

Jeshua delivered his best, and then got on with his Life. One wonders if he would need to come back and 'splain it all again. Or to send salespeople back to knock on our doors to present us with the "new, improved, updated version, now on DVD." Especially folks that say "J. sent me."

J. is kicking back in his version of The Summerlands, for a well-deserved rest. If others have wanted to re-present what Jeshua said, or didn't say, obviously they will. Occasionally he turns on the set and watches when he's in the mood for a reality show. Which probably isn't all that often.

All this being said, or blogged, I must add that ACIM has amazing and even delightful things in it to lead one a-pondering and a-wandering. There are very profound bits. My favourite in The Workbook is Lesson 129, "Beyond this world there is a world I want." Which I interpret as, "There is a heppy lend — fur, fur awa-a-ay."

We would like to let this particular curmudgio go now, rather than generate any further issues around it. But it's been fun. Famous last words. Our next post may examine Mundus Imaginalus.

Look, reallylook (that is, observe from a Reality perspective) at what you think you see for yourself, as your Self. Ponder K.'s suggestion to accept no other authority than one's own (the I AM).

_________________* "When Krazy Kat is at the apex of his happiness, perched on a rock, gazing toward the heavens, he always sings 'There is a heppy lend--fur, fur awa-a-ay.' The phrase comes to be a sort of refrain for the strip, indicating that all this brick-throwing strife is transformed by the pure soul of Krazy Kat into the harmony of the cosmos. Krazy Kat is incapable of seeing meanness or hatred." (John Bloom, 2003)
** "Wizened" has nothing to do with wisdom. Look it up.
*** This link is in honour of G.Q.

"Creativity is the principle of novelty. Creativity introduces novelty into the content of the many, which are the universe disjunctively. The creative advance is the application of this ultimate principle of creativity to each novel situation which it originates. The ultimate metaphysical principle is the advance from disjunction to conjunction, creating a novel entity other than the entities given in disjunction. The novel entity is at once the togetherness of the 'many' which it finds and also it is one among the disjunctive ' many' which it leaves; it is a novel entity, disjunctively among the many entities which it synthesizes. The many become one, and are increased by one. In their natures, entities are disjunctively 'many' in process of passage into conjunctive unity... Thus the 'production of novel togetherness' is the ultimate notion embodied in the term concrescence. These ultimate notions of 'production of novelty' and 'concrete togetherness' are inexplicable either in terms of higher universals or in terms of the components participating in the concrescence. The analysis of the components abstracts from the concrescence. The sole appeal is to intuition.-- (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, p. 26)

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"Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustable well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."
-- Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

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"The instrument of thought, which has produced this world that does not work properly, is no longer valid. So perhaps this instrument of thought is worn out. Is there another instrument we can use?" -- Krishnamurti

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"...Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the nightingale for its song, and the sun for his radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves and should turn them into odes of self-congratulation on the excellence of the human mind. Nature is a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colourless; merely the hurrying of material, endlessly, meaninglessly."
-- Alfred North Whitehead - English mathematician & philosopher (1861-1947)___________________________________

". . . keeping the Risen concept of weaving in mind, perhaps at this point it can be sensed that what we have before us, from which we are inseparable and as reflected in this book, is a Supreme Tapestry. There appears to be a Very Grand Design which we all follow, either in awareness
or not, co-creatively or not -- recalling that creative means fun. As we weave we are free to make it up as we go along in any way we please, simultaneously staying within the Grand Design as imagined by Higher Imaginals, of whom we an inseparable part. The Grand Design is a work of perfections intermingled with imperfections, solutions with mistakes, and stillness within movement. The Higher Imaginals are many things, but for our purposes here, it suffices to say that they are very advanced and evolved individuals, or Higher Selves."
(from The Risen: Dialogues of Love, Grief & Survival Beyond Death; Chapter 13, Mundus Imaginalis, p. 165).